Your Donation$ At Work

Posted Monday December 14, 2015 by Shelter Care Team

Shelter Care Ministries is truly a Godsend!

I (Sarah) lost my job in July of 2013, which led to our family being evicted from our home in August 2013. We lost everything including our 3 pets. Skip's sister was able to let us stay with her in a tiny one bedroom apartment, but for only 2 weeks, due to her lease. After those two weeks, we could still visit her during the day, but had to sleep in our car at night (a very long 11 months!!!)

Not really sure what to do to get help, Skip called Congresswoman Cheri Bustos to see what our options were. She told us about Shelter Care Ministries and told us to go apply for help. We applied in 2014 and were given emergency shelter for 6 months.

We moved into our new apartment in July 2014. When we moved in they provided everything. The apartment was fully furnished. We also had access to a washer and dryer in the basement. It was enough that we got all the furnishings, but we were also given many other items to start our new home -- everything a person would need to live a decent life. What a surprise when our son received books and games for his birthday in September AND Christmas presents for all of us.

We knew that this was just emergency housing which meant only 6 months before we would have to figure out what to do next. Our caseworker worked with us and had us fill out an application for (Shelter Care's) Permanent Supportive Housing because of Skip's disability. In January 2015, we moved into our new home.

Shelter Care helped us move ALL of our stuff to the new home. Since we were living in emergency housing, the stuff in that apartment had to stay for the next blessed family. However, that didn't matter because once again Shelter Care came to the rescue through more (furniture) donations.